Word.

After a post on her Twitter calling for Muslims to “refudiate” the “Ground Zero” Mosque, Sarah Palin coined a new word that has been recognized by the New Oxford American Dictionary.

The Dictionary explained its reasoning for recognizing the word in a press release: “From a strictly lexical interpretation of the different contexts in which Palin has used ‘refudiate,’ we have concluded that neither ‘refute’ nor ‘repudiate’ seems consistently precise, and that ‘refudiate’ more or less stands on its own, suggesting a general sense of ‘reject.’ ”

My most sincere props to the New Oxford American Dictionary for making the bold decision to add another word to the English language.

Some instances warrant the invention of a new word. One such instance would be the act of winning in a chess match, which should be termed “checkmation.” The definition of “checkmation” would be “an alternate tense of the word ‘checkmate,’ which describes the winning of a chess match via checkmate.” Use in a sentence: “Fred only won because his opponent did not forsee the checkmation of his king, as he was focusing on a different piece on the board.”

Checkmation. Photo courtesy of Rein Nomm.

Similarly, Erik Laurin of Schodack invented a word to describe the process of receiving something – “Receiviation” is a word that can be used to more accurately describe the conditions under which a thing was received, having been given from one party to another. Example: “The receiviation of Emily’s birthday card was the high point of the evening.” Unlike its past tense, received, which indicates a certain finality, receiviation leaves some degree of suspense and anticipation, as the action has not yet been completed but is instead still in the process of being completed.

Not so different from receiviation is a homonym we all know – training. Not the process of familiarizing an employee with workplace duties, but the process of boarding a train. Although training is already a word, some might argue that its homonym for boarding a train should also be recognized by the dictionary as an acceptable term for the process of entering a train.

What is a speed slower than a schlep? A schloop, which is basically a schlep, but slightly slower. “Come on, Steven. You’re moving at a schloop.”

9 Responses

I’ve made up a few words in dealing with my pets. For the dog, I tell him to keep his “schnoozle” off the kitchen table. When I’m feeling affectionate, I call him my snuffle-uffle-lopagas. I once had a student use the word “descriptious” when he meant “descriptive” but I like descriptious better.

I made up a word on the fly yesterday..I didn’t want to go through with the effort of saying the two whole words “perform surgery” so I opted to go with “surger,” as in: “The doctor is going to surger my hip today to do a replacement.”